The present invention relates to a connector and auto-parts having the connector attached thereto, which are suitable for achieving automatic assembling of an automobile, and especially to a connector and auto-parts having the connector attached thereto, in which electrical connection is accomplished in the early stages of the mechanical connection between the auto-parts.
Assembling of an automobile is carried out by attaching various auto-parts to the body of the automobile in a predetermined order. In this case, it is more efficient to prepare some partial assemblies by assembling some auto-parts outside the body of the automobile (i.e., in open space) where such an assembling of the parts can be easily carried out. Then, such partial assemblies are finally assembled into the body of the automobile.
In the assembling method of using partial assemblies just described above, the amount of labor required of workers will be increased, because both the size and the weight of the partial assemblies will be increased when compared to the conventional method of automobile assembly in which smaller and lighter individual auto-parts are assembled into the body of the automobile one by one. Therefore, in the new assembly method that uses partial assemblies as described above, a robot assisted assembling system or a fully-automatic assembling system will be required.
Recently, more and more auto-parts are coming to have electronic parts therein. For those partial assemblies composed of auto-parts having electronic parts therein, it is necessary to make the electrical connections between the body of the partial assemblies and the body of the automobile, in addition to the mechanical connections between the bodies of the partial assemblies and the body of the automobile. In such situations, making the electrical connections between the bodies of the partial assemblies and the body of the automobile is becoming a more difficult problem than making the mechanical connections between the bodies of the partial assemblies and the body of the automobile, because of the structure of conventional connectors used.
Referring to FIG. 6, a typical prior art connector is shown. The typical prior art connector has a female electrical terminal member 20 and a male electrical terminal member 10. Both the female electrical terminal member 20 and the male electrical member 10 of the connector may be extended outside of the bodies of both the automobile and the partial assembly by electric cables 5, as shown. Both the female electrical terminal member 20 and the male electrical terminal member 10 of the connector are joined together to accomplish electrical connection, after mechanical connection between the body of the automobile and the body of the partial assembly has been accomplished.
Otherwise, as shown in FIG. 7, either one of the female electrical terminal member 20 or the male electrical terminal member 10 of a connector (in this case, the male electrical terminal member 10) is rigidly attached to either the body of the automobile or the body of the partial assembly, whereas the other member not previously connected (in this case, the female electrical terminal member 20) of the connector is extended from either the body of the automobile or the body of the partial assembly by electric cables 5, to accomplish electrical connection with the male electrical terminal member 10, after mechanical connection has been accomplished.
As described above, at least one of the female electrical terminal member 20 and the male electrical terminal member 10 of a connector is extended outside of the auto-parts or the body of the partial assembly or the body of the automobile by electric cables 5. Therefore, the location of at least one member of the connector which is attached to a tip portion of the flexible electric cables 5 becomes indefinite. As a result, making the electrical connection automatically between both the female electrical terminal member 20 and the male electrical terminal member 10 of the connector becomes a far more difficult problem than making the mechanical connection automatically between the auto-parts or the body of the partial assemblies or the body of the automobile, because of the indefiniteness of the location of at least one member of the connector. This makes it difficult to realize automatic assembly of an automobile.